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Message: [QUOTE="fanfanclubclub, post: 35739, member: 787"] I'm not sure that Scoop compares favorably to the Pearl or Billy-in-his-prime, but let's leave that issue aside for a second. Even if Scoop is one of the best 3 recent Cuse point guards, that doesn't necessarily mean he is good enough to be the starting point guard for [I]this [/I]Syracuse team. Similarly, Romo may be "a good quarterback," he is the 2nd best recent Dallas QB and the 3rd/4th best Dallas QB of all time: but that doesn't necessarily mean that he is good [I]enough [/I]to lead a team that is aiming for a championship. Take North Carolina as an analogy. They, like the Cuse, are among the favorites to win the whole thing. Every player on North Carolina, just like every player on the Cuse, is very good. But because the stakes are so high, UNC can not settle with merely good. They need Kendall Marshall to be [I]championship-level [/I][I]great[/I]. If Marshall had struggled at the World University Games to the same degree that Scoop did, he would be on the hot seat the minute he returned to campus. If Marshall is merely 'better than Adrian Autry,' UNC fans will be very disappointed. If Marshall posts a lousy 1.18 points-per-shot like Scoop did last season, he will get kicked to the curb like Larry Drew II, so that the "next man up" (who happens to be an All American) can play. The main reason Scoop faces more criticism than Autry and Hart, is that Autry and Hart didn't have all americans sitting behind them. Scoop is a great player. He plays for Cuse, so naturally, he is a great player. Southerland is a great player. Mookie is a serious baller. These guys are great. Most any school, except the very very best, would love to feature these guys. But there is a reason why Autry, Hart, et al did not cut down the nets: they lacked truly elite, transcendental talent. That is the same reason why Mookie doesn't play, Southerland barely plays, and some people think Scoop ought not play as much as he does. If Southerland is better than Damone Brown, should he start? Such comparisons don't matter, the real question is how does Southerland compare to KJo, ThickBurger, and Xmas. Even if Southerland had posted good counting stats last season, he shouldn't get starters minutes over the 3 more-talented forwards. So what does it matter if Jardine is better than Allen Griffin? There is a chance that Scoop is the [I][B]fourth[/B][/I] best point guard on this team (assist totals notwithstanding). That's how great Syracuse has gotten as a program. Many scouting and advanced stat communities (Hollinger, Basketball Prospectus, etc.) rank both Triche and Waiters ahead of Scoop, and obviously MCW is a Micky D. We have four combo guards on this team who all compare pretty well, talent-wise, to any guards that we have recently had. Any of the four could end up challenging the legacies of Flynn, Sherm and Pearl. Are we sure that Scoop is the one of the four that we want to hand the keys too? Even great programs only get a handful of legitimate national championship opportunities. Scoop is both unlucky and lucky that he happened to come along during Syracuse's recruiting peak. As our program grows in stature, so too does the measuring stick by which our players are judged. That is why the Dallas/Romo comparison works well. In Dallas, failing to win a championship is unacceptable. Scoop has failed to win a championship so far. We all know he is good, even very good: but is he [I]championship [/I]good? I think he is [I]championship[/I] good, but only as a 'first guard off the bench' instant-offense combo guard. So far, he has not shown a championship-caliber approach to the point guard position: I don't think many people would argue that he has. Formerly, our starters did not need to be championship caliber in order for us to achieve our goals: with few exceptions, that is no longer the case. Let's hope Scoop is up to the task. [/QUOTE]

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